Soul ties between father and son – “Seeing that his {the father, Jacob} soul is bound up with his {the son Benjamin} soul” (Genesis 44:30). His life is bound up in the lad’s life. Life is the same word used for soul in 5315; this embraces them with the closest love (cf. I Samuel 18:1; Proverbs 22:15). (Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon).

A soul tie in the Bible can be described not only by the word knit, but bound up, and clave or cleave. Cleave has a double meaning: to separate or to bring closer together.

To cleave, to adhere, firmly, as if with glue; to be glued; hence to be attached to anyone, to be lovingly devoted. God desires that we be soul-tied to Him: “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His Name” (Deuteronomy 10:20; 11:22; cf. I Samuel 25:29; Gesenius Lexicon).

There can be a soul tie to a pastor or leader: “So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba … but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan, even to Jerusalem (II Samuel 20:2).

Soul ties to the world are forbidden for they turn us back to old things and will hinder deliverance. “Else if ye do in any wise to back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and they to you: know for a certainty that the Lord your God will not more drive out of any these nations from before thee; but they shall be snares and traps unto you; and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from this good land which the Lord your God hath given you” (Joshua 23:13,13).

Soul ties formed by fornication and immorality: “And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel…” (Genesis 34:2, 3). Solomon had a similar problem in I Kings 11:2.

Soul ties can be formed in marriage relationships: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

See Numbers 30 and note the word “bound”. You can bind your soul with a promise and it is up to you to keep it or it may forever haunt you. Bound – to yoke or hitch; by analogy, to fasten in any sense, to join battle; bind fast, gird, harness, hold, keep, make ready, order, prepare, prison(er), put in bonds, set in array, tie (Strong’s concordance). Gesenius Lexicon (pg 68) to bind, a bond or prohibition upon oneself; i.e., to bind oneself with a vow of abstinence, promising to abstain from certain things otherwise permitted (Numbers 30:3). Perhaps if we make a promise or a vow, and find we cannot fulfill it, it may be wise to break the soul tie to that promise, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Gesenius Lexicon (p. 719) to bind up, to bind together; metaphor, “the life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of the living with God,” i.e., shall be under the protection of God (I Samuel 25:29).

Soul ties with fellow Christians (Colossians 2:2, 19). Knit (4822) to force, causative (by reduplication) of the base of 939; to drive together; i.e., unite in association or affection; (mentally) to infer; show; compact; assuredly gather; instruct; knit together; prove. Thayers Greek Lexicon (p. 595) to cause to coalesce, to join together; of the parts of the body; knit together into one whole compacted together (Ephesians 4:16); to unite or knit together in affection (Colossians 2:2, 19).